Scammers using Me-N-Ed's pizza name to trick people out of money

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Scammers are now preying on pizza lovers, it seems. A Valley woman is warning that scammers are using the name of a popular pizza place to rip people off.

Apparently the scam has already cost one couple hundreds of dollars. The callers claim to be collecting on a bounced check written out to Me-N-Ed's. The company's owner said these calls are not coming from his employees. A Fresno woman says she was almost duped as she was threatened with hundreds of dollars in fees and arrest.

The scam attempt began with a voicemail left for Christine Bishop. "This call is a courtesy," the voicemail said. "Unfortunately it is time sensitive. If you're intention is to clear this matter on a volunteer basis to keep this from being filed in your local jurisdiction."

The matter, Bishop said, was over a bounced check to Me-N-Ed's pizza for $8.11, from 2009. The caller told Bishop she now owed $342 restitution for 'depository fraud charges.'

"She said they sent multiple letters," Bishop said. "She had old addresses of mine. I told her I wasn't going to pay it until I could speak with somebody. Then she said she was going to send someone out with a warrant for my arrest."

Bishop said she is a regular at Me-N-Ed's. The caller though also had the last four digits in her social security number, her previous last name and other information that simply would not be known to a pizza place.

"Who isn't a Me-N-Ed's customer around here," Bishop said. "But, absolutely, they just knew too many specifics, which is what really bothered me."

So she began to question this so-called business. "They started becoming extremely aggressive, where she became I guess verbally abusive," Bishop said.

In addition to threats with an arrest warrant, the caller, Bishop says, wanted to get paid. "She said an additional $900 fee because she had to get paid, too," Bishop said. "Those were her exact words."

Me-N-Ed's says it's not them trying to collect. Bishop even called their corporate office where she found out she wasn't the only one getting the calls.

"She said that there was an elderly couple that was taken advantage of for over $600," said Bishop. "That was a big concern of mine. I didn't want this to happen to someone else."

Me-N-Ed's says it began investigating these calls as well, but wasn't able to get ahold of anyone from the so-called business trying to collect money from people here in the Valley.